


The Tumult and the Shouting Dies

by imaginary_golux



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fluff, Force-Sensitive Finn, Hurt/Comfort, Light Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-09
Updated: 2016-08-09
Packaged: 2018-08-07 17:44:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7723834
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>From a kinkmeme prompt: after the last battle, Finn carries Rey to safety across the battlefield.</p>
<p>Beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Tumult and the Shouting Dies

Rey stands there for a long moment, braced on her deactivated lightsaber-staff, looking down at the corpses of her enemies: here Kylo Ren, his own lightsaber hilt still clutched against his chest in stiffening hands, where Rey forced the shining blade through his heart; there Snoke, a snarl still fixed on his hideous face even with his head lying yards from his twisted body. Rey aches all over: on her arm, where Kylo Ren made a very spirited effort to cut her hand off; on her back, where Snoke struck her from hiding and only the shrieking of the Force let her twist aside from the deadly blow; in her ankle, which she twisted at some forgotten point during the fight, and which now screams with agony. If she is wrong about how many Knights of Ren there were - if another one emerges from cover to do battle - she will be dead. She is so exhausted that she’s only on her feet because she has not yet overbalanced, her Force-senses so overburdened that she can’t feel a thing. She sways.

And Finn, behind her, says, “Dearest.”

Rey turns, slowly, ankle buckling, and Finn catches her in strong arms, smiles down at her as she sags against him. “Dearest,” he says again, quietly.

“Is it over?” she asks as he gathers her up, draping one of her arms around his shoulders while he hooks his arms under her knees and around her back and cradles her to his chest like a child. She tucks her injured arm, lightsaber-staff still clenched in her hand, against her own chest, staff awkwardly angled between them, and lets her head loll against Finn’s warm shoulder.

“It’s over,” Finn says. “I killed Hux myself, and the last Knights of Ren too, and Phasma surrendered, along with all the Stormtroopers left under her command. We’ve won. The First Order is kriffing _done_.” He turns and begins picking his way carefully through the rubble of the battle; as he rounds a corner, Rey sees the main battlefield for the first time since she left it, hours ago, turning her back on the massed ranks of Stormtroopers to pursue Kylo Ren and his foul master.

It is littered with corpses, shattered white armor piled atop Resistance drabs, the reek of blaster fire hanging over the whole scene. Rey winces and closes her eyes as Finn makes his way slowly across the field, picking his footing carefully. The ground is muddy with blood and slush - why the First Order liked ice planets so much, Rey will never know - and Finn plants his feet so he will not slip, so that Rey’s injuries will not be jarred.

“Who’d we lose?” Rey murmurs, wincing already at the thought.

Finn doesn’t speak for a long moment. “Too many,” he says at last. “The General’s still standing. Poe’s in medbay, but Doc Kalonia thinks he’ll make it through. We lost Snap, and we’re not sure Pava will make it. Half the command staff is gone; the bastards got a hit in on headquarters. Tabala didn’t get out in time.”

“Ah, damn,” Rey says softly. “Tabala was going to show me how to play holochess, and I had a bet on with Pava that I could outdrink her - ah, damn it all.”

Finn bends his head and kisses her forehead softly. “Sorry, dearest.”

“Master Luke would have said they’ve gone to the Force,” Rey says. “But I’m not Master Luke.”

“No, you’re a lot prettier,” Finn says, and Rey bursts into exhausted giggles that turn, all of a moment, into sobbing. She’s soaking the shoulder of Finn’s jacket, and as if in answer to her tears, the clouds which have been threatening all day finally open, releasing a cold grey drizzle that chills them both to the bone within moments.

Thankfully, they’re near the makeshift landing field by that point, and Finn carries Rey up the ramp of the _Millennium Falcon_ , meeting Chewbacca at the top. The Wookiee holds out a pair of enormous towels, draping one around Finn’s shoulders like a cape, and Finn nods his thanks and carries Rey and the towels into the bunk they share, where there’s a medkit waiting - Chewbacca’s work again. The Wookiee appears to have basically adopted Rey, these days, and Finn too by proxy. Finn’s been learning Shyriiwook and Binary in his scant moments of spare time. It seems only polite.

Finn puts Rey down on their bunk and pries the saberstaff out of Rey’s clenched fingers gently, coaxing her hand open with soft kisses to her fingertips, and lays it reverently aside. The last of Rey’s strength goes with it, and she sags back against the pillows, eyes falling closed. Finn undresses her carefully, tossing her tattered clothing into the hamper behind him without turning to see if he hits his mark; the Force lifts the sleeves of her tunic in. _Finn’s_ senses are not yet exhausted, since the last three Knights of Ren, even together, were nothing like as powerful as their Master, and so _his_ battle was a far simpler thing.

(Simpler, too, because Finn does not use a lightsaber. With the Force behind it, a blaster bolt can be truly devastating, and when that is combined with Finn’s own well-trained accuracy, well, what he shoots at goes _down_. Permanently. There is barely enough left of General Hux to identify.)

Finn smears bacta over the horrid burns on Rey’s arm, turns her gently onto her side to do the same to the dreadful wound on her back, not as deep but nearly in the same place as his own, and layers bandages over both injuries, then wraps her ankle in bacta and bandages. He props her head up briefly to pour painkillers down her throat, and then tucks her in, adjusting the pillows around her so she’s not putting any weight on the gash in her back, and sits down on the floor beside her, resting one hand on her uninjured leg. She is already asleep, and Finn watches the steady rise and fall of her chest, the breaths that mean she yet lives, and thanks the Force with all his heart.

When she wakes, there will be questions to answer, grieving to do, rebuilding to begin. But for right now, it is enough that Rey is alive, and Finn is alive, and their enemies are fallen. Tomorrow is soon enough for whatever comes next.

**Author's Note:**

> The title is from Rudyard Kipling's _Recessional_.
> 
> I'm imaginarygolux on tumblr; please stop by!


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